Guerlain Terra Inca powder and Terre Indigo eyeshadow compact

Another Guerlain post, this time with a couple of products from the summer collection, Terra Inca. I got the Sublime Radiant Powder and the 4 shade eyeshadow called Terre Indigo. I bought them both in Florida and if I remember correctly, the powder cost $70 and the eyeshadow compact was $45. I don't think this collection is out in the UK yet (it wasn't on Sunday when I asked in Debenhams), so not sure about the prices, but I'm guessing £45-ish for the powder and £30-ish for the eyeshadows. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.  

The Terra Inca powder is a nice bronzy powder with slight shimmer, it's not really a bronzer more of an illuminator or blush for lighter skintones. The compact feels like wood, but it's not very heavy, so not too sure what it's made of. Instead of hinges it's held together with 3 magnets, so when you open it, the lid comes straight off. It has a nice big mirror in the lid. The powder weighs 14.5 g, so it's pretty big.

The eyeshadow compact contains 4 shades: orange, chocolate brown, dark brown, blue and some gold overspray. You get 9 g which is pretty good, it's even more than the 6 colour palettes Guerlain released last year (and those cost £52.50!).

I apologise but there won't be any swatches in this post as I haven't managed to test these yet, they are both so pretty, I don't want to ruin the lovely designs. You know me. I will be brave and use them some day, and will let you know what I think. For now, there are a lot of pictures below.

Guerlain Rouge Automatique lipstick review and swatches

Guerlain has released a new lipstick line called Rouge Automatique and I have 3 of the shades to show you today. I purchased one of them in Florida, but now they are available in the UK too, priced £24.50 each (ouch!).They cost £3.50 more than the regular Kiss Kiss line, I think the price difference is partly due to the case and partly the new formula. So what are these exactly? They are basically very creamy, soft, gorgeous, moisturising lipsticks in a quirky case which has no cap, instead you pull a button on its side down and that pushes the lipstick up. So if you need to, you can apply your lipstick one handed. (Only question is, just how often do we actually need to apply lipsticks with one hand? I'm perfectly capable of taking the cap off my lipsticks while doing pretty much everything, although I tend not to apply them while cooking/driving/wiping nose, whatever you need your other hand for.)

Anyway, it is still a very very lovely lipstick, whether you need one or two hands to apply it. The formula is soft, creamy, long lasting (especially the darker shades) and glossy. They last for about 3-3.5 hours on me depending on the shade and whether I eat/drink. Not quite as long as I have seen on some other blogs, but it's not too bad for me. I have 3 of them at the moment, but hoping to pick up a few more in the future, fortunately they are permanent. The shades I have are 141 Quand Viend L'Ete, 143 Nahema and 165 Champs-Elysees. Incidentally Champs-Elysees is the shade the gorgeous Natalia Vodianova is wearing in the promo picture above. You will see in the swatches that 141 and 143 are surprisingly similar, although 143 is pinker and slightly lighter. I bought 141 in Florida and 143 from eBay unseen, so that's how I ended up with two similar shades. They're both very pretty though, so I'm happy. The lipsticks seem quite small when pushed up, but they are the standard 3.5 g size, same as the Rouge G lipsticks, and in fact 0.5 g more than Mac lipsticks. The case is lightweight, unlike the Rouge G case, so much easier to carry around in your handbag.

Finally, see some more product pictures, swatches and a photo of me wearing Champs-Elysees.

L'Occitane Pivoine Flora eyeshadow palette, lipstick and lipgloss review and swatches

Today I would like to show you my rather small haul from L'Occitate's new summer collection called Pivoine Flora. I got the rather lovely eyeshadow palette (Petals Eye Quartet), a lipstick (Rose Pique) and a lipgloss (Pointe Grandine). There are also some nice eyeshadow duos in the collection, some of which I considered getting, but the shades weren't unique enough and there was no pretty pattern on them, unlike the Petals Eye Quartett.

The palette contains 4 soft, beige, pink and purple eyeshadows with raised flower pattern on them, and also come with a small mirror and double ended brush/applicator. The eyeshadows are nice and soft, and a bit shimmery, just as I like them. I haven't actually worn any of these products yet, so all my opinion is based on my swatches.

The lipstick is a nice rosy pink shade, it's nowhere near as bright as it looks in the tube, in fact it applies rather sheer. The lipgloss is more true to colour, it's a nice reddish shade, and it actually delivers quite a lot of colour. It also has a nice subtle shimmer to it and it's not sticky at all. The lipstick has quite a strong flowery scent (I think it's peony, it's very similar to their Peony shimmer powder's scent that I got last year), but it's fine, I don't mind it.

All in all, a nice little collection, worth checking out. Available online and in L'Occitane stores. The eyeshadow palette costs £22, lipstick £12, lipgloss £11.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Christian Dior Summer 2011 Eyeshadow Quints: Rosy Nude and Rosy Tan

Dior is one of my favourite brands, I especially love their eyeshadows, so I always check out the new limited edition ones with every new collection. (If you are interested to check out my Dior quint collection, please click here! I do need to update it though as I now have even more of them.) This summer Dior has launched two new quints: 534 Rosy Nude and 754 Rosy Tan.

Rosy Nude (left), Rosy Tan (right)

Both of them are gorgeous, they both contain browns and pinks, but if I had to choose I'd say Rosy Tan is my favourite. Rosy Nude is probably more for daytime, and Rosy Tan is more suitable for creating a more dramatic eye, but they are both light enough to work for those looking for a work-friendly eyeshadow palette. I like it that they both contain a pink shade because I love my pinks and it makes them a bit more interesting and girly. I also like it that they've included a highlighter colour in both palettes, so you can use one (or the other) for a complete look. You can even use the darker shades as eyeliner and hey presto, all you need to add is mascara!

I wore these at the weekend and they both lasted all day, didn't crease or fade and there was no fall out. The eyeshadows are smooth, buttery and very easy to blend, they are pigmented and shimmery enough to look gorgeous, but not glittery. Both palettes contain a shade that's less shimmery, but not matte, more satin really. These have not been released in the UK yet (I bought them in Florida last month), but I'm sure it's any day now, and they're most likely to cost around £40 each.

See more product pictures and swatches after the jump!

Another NOTD with Zoya Sunshine Collection - Rica swatches and review

I'm really enjoying using my new nail polishes from Zoya's Sunshine collection and today I would like to show you Rica, a gorgeous coral with orange and pink sheen and gold sparkle. This is once again a shimmery metallic nail polish (not glitter!) and is a lovely lovely summer shade. Its texture and consistency is the same as Apple, so I will not repeat it, please check out my previous review here.

I really love it that it looks coral, orange and pink at the same time, it's such a gorgeous colour. Reminds me a bit of Mac's Bad Fairy although it's not a dupe by far (it is lighter), but it's almost duochrome like Bad Fairy and similarly pretty. Love it!

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD with Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam

I created the following look using my new Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam. I mentioned in my review that the palette comes with a booklet showing two looks, a daytime and a nighttime one, and this look is the nighttime one. (I didn't actually realise there were two looks until I'd done this, the other one would've been more suitable for daytime, but it's not like I never wear bright, colourful make up anyway.) Once again the pinkiness is lost in the pictures, the lid colour is much pinker than it shows in the photos below, but my camera just can't pick it up. I need to buy a better camera, I know, I keep saying it.

For this look I used the following products:

Eyes:

Sleek purple eyeshadow primer (from the Primer Palette)

Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam (see breakdown below)
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Ransom
Rimmel Exaggerate waterproof mascara in black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Meteorites Perles primer
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac MSF Natural in Medium
Lancome Blush Subtil in Coral Marvel (LE)
Mac Lightscapade MSF (LE)

Lips:
Lancome L'Absolu Creme de Brilliance in #357 Rose Mythique

See more photos including the breakdown for the positioning of shades after the jump!

Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam Review and Swatches

One of the products I was most excited to check out during my recent trip to the US was the new Lancome Color Design 5-Shadow and Liner Palette in 300 Amethyst Glam. These new palettes are not (yet) available in the UK (don't actually know if they will be at all), but thanks to the world wide web and fellow bloggers I already knew I wanted this. So I was delighted to find it in Dillards where they also offered a fantastic make up bag full of samples including a mini size Genifique serum and a smallish Bi-Facil, both my favourites.

This new 5 colour palette includes an all-over colour, a lid colour, a crease colour, a highlighter and liner, so it is a complete all-in-one look. I did think the names given to each shade were a bit mixed up, until I saw the booklet included with the palette (it contains step-by-step advice for two, one daytime and one night time look) in which the all-over base colour is applied up to the brow bone and the highlighter shade is actually applied to the inner corner and middle of lid to give some sparkle and lighten up the whole look. My swatches don't show it very well, but both the all-over lid colour and the highlighter colour are very shimmery, especially the highlighter.

Lancome claims the shadows are long wearing, they don't crease and the colours don't fade for 8 hours. Having worn them for over 12 hours I can confirm that this is in fact true. Moreover, the eyeshadows are wonderfully soft, blendable and true to colour or if anything, even brighter than in the pan once applied! Unfortunately, as always, my camera didn't manage to capture the true colour of this wonderful palette, the eyeshadows are more pink and less cool than they look in the picture. For more colour acurate swatches, please take a look at the lovely Karla Sugar's website.

So yes, the colours didn't fade, the shadows did not crease and there was no fall out. I would happily recommend this palette, I think it's gorgeous and wonderful. Hope Lancome brings these palettes to the UK too, I'd like to check out the rest of the line (there are 10 of them). They cost $48 each.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!